Following the news.

Meredith Ridzinski, right, of Manhattan, with her grandmother Sue Lubroth, center, of Great Neck, N.Y, and aunt, Joan Eisner, of Rockville, M.D., read a news ticker in New York's Times Square announcing the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia over Texas.

Meredith Ridzinski, right, of Manhattan, with her grandmother Sue Lubroth, center, of Great Neck, N.Y, and aunt, Joan Eisner, of Rockville, M.D., read a news ticker in New York's Times Square announcing the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia over Texas. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Meredith Ridzinski, right, of Manhattan, with her grandmother Sue Lubroth, center, of Great Neck, N.Y, and aunt, Joan Eisner, of Rockville, M.D., read a news ticker in New York's Times Square announcing the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia over Texas.ASSOCIATED PRESS